Touch screen devices, such as a smart phones and tablets, allowed users to interact with applications on smaller portable devices without the need for an external keyboard, touchpad, or mouse. The smaller displays of these portable devices resulted in less viewable content on the touch screen. Additionally, the use of fingers and other objects to interact with applications through the touch screen, required larger buttons and selectable objects to accommodate the larger surface area of fingers. The larger buttons and selectable objects often results in even less content being displayed.
The less content that is displayed, the more difficult for users to use sophisticated applications that include large numbers of user selectable and/or customizable parameters. For example, data analysis and business intelligence applications often include the ability to forecast multiple scenarios by selecting and/or varying different characteristics, such as different data fields, parameters, conditions, and variables, for business planning and other purposes. The large number of different data options and selectable characteristics has made it difficult for users to efficiently analyze data from these touch screen devices without having to scroll through many different menu and submenu combinations.
There is a need for intuitive and efficient techniques for user to adjust and select data characteristics when analyzing data on these touch screen devices.